A word about useful tools

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History is full of great quotations that people never said. One of the best lines comes from Vladimir Lenin. He described Russian progressives, social democrats, and other fellow travelers as “useful idiots” – naïve allies in revolution whom the Bolsheviks promptly crushed when they took power.

Or so the legend goes. In fact, there’s no evidence Lenin actually spoke those words, at least in public. But no one seems to care. It’s a compelling line, and in its own way, entirely true. The naïve and imprudent can very easily end up as useful tools in a larger conflict; or to frame it more generously, as useful innocents. The result is usually the same. They’re discarded.

History is also full of unfortunate comments that really were said – as found, for example, in a recent Rome-based journal article that many have already rightly criticized. The article in question, La Civiltà Cattolica’s “Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A Surprising Ecumenism,” is an exercise in dumbing down and inadequately presenting the nature of Catholic/evangelical cooperation on religious freedom and other key issues.

Catholics and other Christians who see themselves as progressive tend to be wary of the religious liberty debate. Some distrust it as a smokescreen for conservative politics. Some see it as a distraction from other urgent issues. Some are made uneasy by the cooperation of many Catholics and evangelicals, as well as Mormons and many Orthodox, to push back against abortion on demand, to defend marriage and the family, and to resist LGBT efforts to weaken religious freedom protections through coercive SOGI (sexual orientation/gender identity) “anti-discrimination” laws.

But working for religious freedom has never precluded service to the poor. The opposite is true. In America, the liberty of religious communities has always been a seedbed of social action and ministry to those in need.

The divide between Catholic and other faith communities has often run deep. Only real and present danger could draw them together. The cooperation of Catholics and evangelicals was quite rare when I was a young priest. Their current mutual aid, the ecumenism that seems to so worry La Civilta Cattolica, is a function of shared concerns and principles, not ambition for political power.

As an evangelical friend once said, the whole idea of Baptist faith cuts against the integration of Church and state. Foreign observers who want to criticize the United States and its religious landscape – and yes, there’s always plenty to criticize — should note that fact. It’s rather basic.

Dismissing today’s attacks on religious liberty as a “narrative of fear” — as the La Civiltà Cattolica author curiously describes it — might have made some sense 25 years ago. Now it sounds willfully ignorant. It also ignores the fact that America’s culture wars weren’t wanted, and weren’t started, by people faithful to constant Christian belief.

So it’s an especially odd kind of surprise when believers are attacked by their co-religionists merely for fighting for what their Churches have always held to be true.

Earlier this month, one of the main architects and financiers of today’s LGBT activism said publicly what should have been obvious all along: The goal of at least some gay activism is not simply to assure equality for the same-sex attracted, but to “punish the wicked” – in other words, to punish those who oppose the LGBT cultural agenda.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out whom that might include. Today’s conflicts over sexual freedom and identity involve an almost perfect inversion of what we once meant by right and wrong.

Catholics are called to treat all persons with charity and justice. That includes those who hate what we believe. It demands a conversion of heart. It demands patience, courage and humility. We need to shed any self-righteousness. But charity and justice can’t be severed from truth. For Christians, Scripture is the Word of God, the revelation of God’s truth – and there’s no way to soften or detour around the substance of Romans 1:18-32, or any of the other biblical calls to sexual integrity and virtuous conduct.

Trying to do so demeans what Christians have always claimed to believe. It reduces us to useful tools of those who would smother the faith that so many other Christians have suffered, and are now suffering, to fully witness.

This is why groups that fight for religious liberty in our courts, legislatures, and in the public square – distinguished groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom and Becket (formerly the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty) – are heroes, not “haters.”

And if their efforts draw Catholics, evangelicals and other people of good will together in common cause, we should thank God for the unity it brings.

***

The Archbishop encourages readers to learn more about, and to support with their prayers and resources, the Alliance Defending Freedom at www.adflegal.org, and Becket at www.becketlaw.org.

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102 Responses

As Christians we see and love the individual person Jesus died for. Painting people into groups is inconsistent with God’s plan. We cannot reduce the inestimable value of a human being into base sexual terms.

It can be challenging in this day to open our hearts as you say to those that do not have the same beliefs as us, for sure. There are so many challenges, and everything is magnified 10 fold anymore in every part of the world. However, with the strength from God, and a true understanding, we know we are all the same value in His eyes. We are loved, and we try to carry out his Word.

I have lived for the past 3+ years in Poland, but was born and grew up in the United States. Sometimes I find both the (supposedly) Vatican-related articles and American approach to religion bizarre. The Catholic Church has an enormously influential position in Polish society, and though there is an official separation of church and state, in reality Poland is a Catholic country both in its customs and in how politicians are expected to act. That does not mean they are perfect, but they are expected to fight for the truth which the Church teaches. This seems to be missing in American politics, and western European politics as well, it seems. If this is seen by some (supposedly) Vatican-related article author as “mixing religion and politics”…well, then tough. I prefer living in a Christian country without psychopathic muslim murderers and sharia police wandering the streets, where I can go to church on Sunday without fearing for my life, where a religious procession through the middle of town is not something out of the ordinary, and where people still have a common moral standard to refer to (even if they are not believers themselves). There is nothing discriminatory or exclusive about this. If someone does not believe, nobody is going to discriminate against them or force them to believe in anything. But likewise, nobody is going to come up with the idiotic idea to force a practicing Christian to serve a gay wedding, or the like. You are free to follow your conscience. And this is how I believe it should be. Perhaps Poland can serve as an example to both American extreme conservatives (and I certainly would not count Abp. Chaput as belonging to this group) and pseudo-Vatican liberals.

I am beginning to feel as though I have no place within my faith community. Under the guise of promoting religious liberty and being true to moral principles, my archbishop, and many of his “constituents”, see no issue getting in bed with a man and a movement that runs counter in practice to those high ideals they claim to embrace as Christians. But hey, he’s against abortion and gay marriage! I can’t gracefully accept Christians who dismiss Pope Francis and indict him for weakening a faith they’ve already corrupted by forgetting the fundamentals. It may just he better to sleep in on Sundays. Rather that then sanction policies that are essentially saying the seven deadlines are ok now. Diplomacy has always been harder to espouse than dogma. But Jesus never said the road to salvation was an easy one.

It was definitely a miracle that Donald Trump won, I have never prayed so hard for a miracle(I’m sure likewise for the other religious who voted for him). Obviously our prayers were heard, for the sake of the unborn, religious freedom and traditional marriage. “the poor will always be with you”, to quote the Lord Jesus Christ, and there has to be richer people to help them. A recent survey showed that Republicans give more to charity than Democrats. What the authors of the article did was further divide the Catholic Church and again Jesus said this is how the enemy works ” a kingdom divided will not stand….” But I depend on the Lord ‘s words that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it”. Let us never stop praying, our most powerful weapon.

I grew up in pre and post-revolutionary Iran and was raised in a Muslim family. Having been educated by Salesian priest missionaries in Tehran since 1st grade and through high school, at a school were no “verbal” evangelizing was ever done to non-Christian pupils, I was drawn to Catholicism as an adolescent due to the constant daily sacrifice and service that I witnessed over many years from my Salesian educators. A few years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, I requested and following four years of catechism, bible study, studying Early Christian History and reading many Fathers of the Church, and despite the initial reluctance of Catholic Church leaders in Iran due to the many risks involved, I was baptized at age 20 in the Catholic Church (Latin Rite) in a secret ceremony in Tehran. Some years later, when I eventually escaped Iran, I had the wonderful opportunity to live in a Catholic community of lay people in service of the poor and the marginalized, led by some incredibly self-less Jesuit priests in Brussels, Belgium.

The European Catholic tradition through which I became interested in Catholicism and eventually chose to convert to Christianity, as well as my experience with Belgian Jesuits was always devoid of verbal evangelizing, culture wars, and acts such as militant marches or occupying public and private places, aggressive lobbying of politicians and sit-ins at state or federal assemblies of elected officials in order to push certain religious beliefs. I lived in a country where for the past nearly 40 years, religion has been literally forced upon citizens in an obligatory and militant manner, which brought about opposite results by causing the creation of the most secular society in Iran’s history. The lesson: be careful about unintended consequences when pushing culture wars too far!

Through my own personal journey and what I witnessed over several decades, the message of Christianity and Catholicism is most effectively spread through quiet acts of service, self-less sacrifice, prayer, humility and solidarity. In my 30 years of living in the United States, I have been time and again dismayed by the small but very loud minority who appear to hold most levers of power in the US Catholic Church, and who seem to be inspired more by fundamentalist Protestants in the United States than by Catholic saints, religious orders and the broader Catholic tradition over centuries. I find it very sad and regretful that Church leaders seem more inspired by propagating culture wars and politicizing the Church than trying to spread the word and the faith through quiet acts of humility, service and solidarity which are the hallmarks of Catholicism and which the Holy Father has personally embodied throughout his life.

Randy, you say that you “…have not been comfortable for some time now with what I have been reading and hearing from the extreme right. I reject the extreme right religious agenda wholey and completely as not Christ like at all…”

I’m interested to know what exactly it is that you wholly and completely reject “…as not Christ like at all.” Thank you.

I realize my response is so much spitting into the wind, but I am as troubled by this essay as I am by the commenters here who support it.

“Catholics are called to treat all persons with charity and justice.” But that is precisely what you argue against, particularly when you align yourself with an organization like the alarming Alliance Defending Freedom, and your belittling remarks about the LGBT cultural agenda. I have no earthly clue what that is. Arguments for religious freedom in this country now seem to center around the freedom to impose our religious beliefs on others, not the freedom to practice religion as we as individuals see fit.

I grew up in the Catholic church and left it as an adult after witnessing far too many perspectives like yours, perspectives that seemed on the surface to talk of compassion and understanding, but in fact pointed entirely the other way. I grew up thinking I as a member of a loving Church. I would argue that Pope Francis is attempting to identify the Catholic Church as one that follows the Golden Rule, and not one whose primary mission appears to demonize.

Since first stumbling over this subject matter 2 days ago in the NYTimes I have found myself here.
I have not been comfortable for some time now with what I have been reading and hearing from the extreme right. I reject the extreme right religious agenda wholey and completely as not Christ like at all, and a sign to me that the evil one is dancing somewhere off stage now and that if I am to be called a useful idiot for standing opposed, so be it.

Stewart, you have not stated what you believe is a far right agenda – just that you reject it wholey. Catholics and Evangelicals who support God’s revealed plan for our lives are not in the far right, alt-right, or any other movement… they are just… right (as in ‘correct’). I have no idea what agenda you reject.

Thank you Stewart, I was raised a Baptist and will always love my FORMER faith. I will love them as I would any sinner. I will not continue to hate myself as a homosexual because they choose to understand God’s understanding of what it means to be a person personally loves. I will be a “total idiot” with God when it comes to helping a pagan conservative man in Russia who kills at will. I will be a “total idiot” when it comes from to opposing a gangster in the WH from those so call preacher who set a “stone tablet” about any book in the Bible that fits only their style of understand. Thank you Stewart for being free to love God as I see it. amen.

Stew: The Archbishop of Philly provided us with a historical context to his statement of fact in this well written post of objective truth. But, you oppose his Grace’s efforts to help keep the Catholic faith livable here in the U.S. Somehow, trying to keep this Catholic faith livable is deemed “not Christ like”. The term used (useful idiot) seems chosen as an attempt to wake Catholics from this rouse;moreover, to remove the blindfold that has been placed on well meaning individuals. There are those who will not comprehend the light (john 1), but one can use this opportunity to actually consider what his Grace is saying. If you do, you can humbly reflect on the words that make you feel uncomfortable, which could be true words, and benefit from the post. The Catholic church has no right/conservative or left/progressive, but she does have God’s truth to live by. She must live by it, in charity, no matter where she is or what’s going on. Do you agree?